My Hero Academia Requests

Terrible Losses (Deku/Bakugo)

It wasn't supposed to happen. Not like that. Not at all. Bakugo was the strongest person Midoriya knew. So if he died then... it wasn't supposed to happen.

It was all his fault.

People kept telling him that it was an accident, that there was nothing that he could have done to prevent it, but that didn't matter. He had One for All now and if he couldn't protect his friend and rival, then how would he be able to save anyone else?

They were all in their third year at U.A. The year that everyone goes on their internship programs. Bakugo and Midoriya just so happened to have been recruited as sidekicks by the same agency. Bakugo was less then pleased with the news that he would have to continue working with Midoriya, but he didn't express it with more then a few angry shouts and words.

A few weeks after their internship started, there was an earthquake. Bakugo and Midoriya were called in by their agency to help with the rescue efforts. When they got there, the devastation that was laid out before them was almost enough to make them hesitate. Almost.

Buildings were leveled, people were crushed under debris. Some buildings were mostly standing. Others were half together and looked like a single breath could send pieces of the building falling to the ground. Deku could see No. 13 there trying to get rid of most of the fallen debris and most of the dangerous obstacles for the other pro heroes and sidekicks.

Training at school had been enough to train them to jump into action. Without even needing to be told they started looking around for survivors and did their best to get them out to the relief area in one piece. Deku used his quirk to quickly jump to survivors and jump them back out before jumping back in. Bakugo used his to blast away debris off of survivors and carried them away.

As Deku was heading back in to help more people, he noticed Bakugo helping an elderly woman out from under a large slab of rock. He seemed okay. Until Deku looked up and saw that half of the building he was over was precariously perched just above him. Deku froze in his spot as he heard the last metal strut pop loudly and start to fall.

Time stopped. Everything moved so much slower. His heartbeat started to pound in his ears. Deku felt like he was stuck in drying concrete as he tried to use Full Cowl to jump and save Bakugo and the woman from getting crushed.

Finally time started moving again and Deku jumped. "KACCHAN!" he shouted, reaching his arms ahead of him like he was trying to grab onto him.

Bakugo whipped his head again to see Deku flying towards him. Then he looked up and realized. His eyes widened a fraction of an inch before he turned to Deku. His expression hardened and he held out an arm.

"Stop, Deku!" he shouted and blasted Deku with his quirk and threw the woman towards him just as the building fell on top of him.

Deku managed to catch the woman in his arms and landed on his back, protecting the woman from any more harm. He laid there, dazed for a few minutes before he sat up and looked where the building just fell. He stood the woman back up and directed her towards the nearest pro hero before he scrambled over to the debris.

His heart stopped and his breath caught in his throat. He knew he couldn't leave Bakugo there, even if he was crushed. He had to do something to save him. He couldn't just leave him there.

He didn't remember much of what happened after that. He thought that he had started to try to dig through the debris. There was a memory that he couldn't place of Kacchan laying on the ground, bloodied and crushed, but he wasn't sure if that was a worst case imagination or a memory from what happened.

He was told he didn't have to go to school for the next few days. Uraraka and Iida and Todoroki came after classes to tell them what they had learned, but he barely remembered anything. Kirishima visited him in his room once. Midoriya didn't remember that either, but Kirishima looked about as bad as he did. It made sense. Bakugo and Kirishima were actually friends.

When Midoriya finally went back to class, he wasn't sure if he could handle it at first. Seeing Bakugo's empty chair was enough to send him into a panic attack. Everyone knew that he blamed himself. Everyone also tried to tell him that it wasn't his fault, that he shouldn't blame himself. Even pro heroes told him so and he still couldn't believe them. So everyone tried giving him his space, hoping that that would be enough. They thought that if they gave him time, he would be able to cope with it on his own.

But it didn't help. Midoriya kept turning in on himself, the grief too much for him to handle all by himself. But he didn't want to burden anyone else. He tried putting on a brave face during school, act like everything was okay. It worked right until he forgot his training with One for All and ended up in the infirmary. That was when All Might came to talk to him.

"What did you do to yourself, young Midoriya," he sighed as he sat down on the cot next to the bed Midoriya was using.

He turned to look at his mentor. "I'm sorry. I got distracted."

"That's not what I mean," All Might said. "You look terrible. Like you haven't eaten in days. Or you just got your guts punched out."

Midoriya blinked. "Are you trying to make a joke?"

All Might shrugged. "I call them like I see them," he said. "So what's wrong?"

He didn't say anything and just stared back at the ceiling.

"It's young Bakugo, isn't it?"

He still didn't say anything, but his eyes filled with tears. He promised himself he wouldn't cry.

"It's all right," All Might said gently. "It's all right to cry. To feel the grief. I know the two of you were childhood friends and losing him before you're eyes like that had to have been the hardest thing to see. In times like this no one expects you to keep smiling. It's okay to cry, to mourn his death."

"But I could have saved him!" Midoriya said, the tears finally falling out of the corners of his eyes. "I was right there! I almost reached him."

"And then you would have been dead, too," All Might said. "No. 13 told me that Bakugo used his quirk to stop you. He saved your life. If you had succeeded in getting to him then..."

"Maybe I could have saved him. Pushed him out of the way, or used One for All to break apart the building," he sobbed.

"And what if you couldn't?" All Might said. "He stopped you from saving him because he knew that you weren't thinking straight, that you wouldn't have thought to do anything. He saved you because he saw what I did. He knew you're important."

"What if I don't want to be that anymore?" Midoriya said and turned to look at All Might. "If I couldn't save another hero, then how could I be able to save anyone else?!"

"Something that you have to learn to be a hero, young Midoriya," All Might said, "is that you can't save everyone. There are some people who you can't reach in time. I'm just sorry that you had to learn that lesson now."

"I miss him," Midoriya said. "I know that we were only rivals, but I can't help it."

"He was more then just a rival," All Might said. "He was your friend. So its okay to miss him. It's okay to cry. It's okay."